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For those of your who regularly rehearse the Cello Suites, how do you interpret the range? As written or otherwise? Does it depend on the horn? Is there a version edited for tuba?

I use the versions of the 6 J.S. Bach Cello Suites arranged for trumpet by David Cooper, published by Charles Colin.
They are in different keys than the originals, but lie really well on the CC tuba.

I drop them an octave on my BBb's and play them as if they were an octave down with BBb fingerings on my Eb horns which drops them a fifth.

The loco reading would be for euph and bassbone. Doing that on a CC or a BBb would be suicidal for most mere humans.

What then with the bass tubas? I wouldn’t know, as I haven’t tried. However the horn versions are transposed up a fourth to accommodate the horn range. I would see nothing wrong in transposing them down a fifth for the bass tubas.

Klaus, worked on these on bassbone, horn, and euph

It's ok as written on euphonium, however, you need a compensating one, because is goes lower than usually written for euphonium.

Wim

When ever I take them out, I use an F tuba, and work on them at the original pitch/octave.

Having said that, no one has ever felt compelled to pay money to hear me play them that way, so far!

Not only are these great music, and challenging, but they require even the casual performer to think about the music and make choices in order to perform it.

They also offer opportunities for working on your double stops, if you're so inclined!

Speaking of double stops. I just arppegiate them at what I think is an appropriate tempo for the surrounding rhythmic texture. And no, no one has ever offered me money to perform them. The only time I have ever attempted any of them, Suite I for my senior recital in 1969, was on bass bone and I thought I was going to have a heart attack before I got done. In fact, as much as I love that music, I won't even rehearse them if ther is anyone else in the house. I will continue to rehearse them, just because.

I love the music of JS Bach, you see a page of apparently simple, straightforwad notes, and then find that it gives itself up a line at a time, or a bar at a time and sometimes it is an acheivement to get a couple or 3 notes together, and it goes for the cello suites, preludes (see the Well Tempered Player by Ernest Piper) or any of his other works transcribed for brass.
I have the transcription by Ralph Sauer from Cherry.

Double stops = multiphonics, anyone?

Todd S. Malicoate wrote:[img]Double stops = multiphonics, anyone?

Exactly my point. One doesn't need contemprary Norwegian music to start with this...

For Eb or F tuba, Doug Yeo has a number of movements available for free on his bass trombone site. You could always try to play them as written, or take them down a 3rd or 4th on a bigger horn. Taking them down too low would loose some of the character, in my opinion.
http://www.yeodoug.com/publications/pdf/pdf.html

windshieldbug wrote:

Todd S. Malicoate wrote:[img]Double stops = multiphonics, anyone?

Exactly my point. One doesn't need contemprary Norwegian music to start with this...

As for Fnugg, there may be some advanced techniques in form of helicopter sound. The performance is, as always with Baadsvik, at the very highest level. But the musical content is very basic, just a few strains of a Norwegian folk tune.

Bach is much more advanced in harmony and counterpoint even here in the Cello Suites. It is possible to put chord symbols under the music all the way. One would assume that a bass note would be necessary to perceive a suspended chord. Bach makes this effect be perceived even in single note lines.

Multiphonics would change the sound character, and I don’t really find them in place here. Rather I recommend lots of arpeggios. It is great fun to exploit the against-the-grain slide technique on a bassbone when playing these suites. Bach wrote the double stops and arpeggios for his specific instrument. They don’t have to be the exact same in brass performances, only the chords of course shall be the same ones (I played from a cello edition).

Bach himself could play all his solo music for whatever keyboard and for violin. There is no evidence that he played cello or viola da gamba. The cello suites are written for neither of these two instruments. Some musicologists have speculated that Bach played this music on some sort of glorified viola.

Klaus

And if performed, be sure not to use vibrato on any notes that would have been open strings.

BVD Press wrote:And if performed, be sure not to use vibrato on any notes that would have been open strings.

Good joke! On bassbone, how much vibrato would one apply to the low C anyway?

Klaus

Lot's of vibrato in the low C on bass bone.......slide vibrato of course.....and more COWBELL please. Those low C's are another very good reason not to drop the octave when attempting on contra-bass(BBb). I would rather screech the high G's than use false tones for the C's(hello Bob).

tbn.al wrote:Lot's of vibrato in the low C on bass bone.......slide vibrato of course.....and more COWBELL please. Those low C's are another very good reason not to drop the octave when attempting on contra-bass(BBb). I would rather screech the high G's than use false tones for the C's(hello Bob).

Will we this on NPR from your next Carnegie Hall recital?

Klaus

tbn.al wrote:... Those low C's are another very good reason not to drop the octave when attempting on contra-bass(BBb). I would rather screech the high G's than use false tones for the C's(hello Bob).

The low C's are no problem for either my 5/4 Rudy BBb or my former horn the 3 + 1
compensated large Besson BBb. I used the Cello Suites primarily for that low register work out, and their aesthetic beauty.

I can't quite get the low C in tune with all 4 down and pulling 1 on my Olds or the VMI. I usually just play them where they are written.

When I have to play a low C (actually much less when I play contrabass than when I played only Eb, for whatever reason) I usually pull 2 slides.

tbn.al wrote:Lot's of vibrato in the low C on bass bone.......slide vibrato of course.....and more COWBELL please. Those low C's are another very good reason not to drop the octave when attempting on contra-bass(BBb). I would rather screech the high G's than use false tones for the C's(hello Bob).

Bwah?!?!

I remember folk saying that their 12J's have very good false tones. How is the Olds?